Does nobody really use DVXuser anymore?

Mike Krumlauf

Mike Krumlauf

Award Winning Filmmaker
I've been hanging around DVXuser in one way or another since summer of 2003 when I was having my first real ramp up into my interests as a filmmaker / artist and, it just seems like nobody really uses this message board like the good ol days when it was just us Mini DV filmmakers (obviously mostly comprised of DVX100 owners).

I get things change over time and the industry both in hobby and profession has changed many times over since I first got into the game and began hovering around on this site but, I sure do miss the good ol' days.

I'm insanely nostalgic by nature too so it might just be that lol. The irony is this is my first post on here all year and probably the second or third time i've visited maybe so i too am apart of the problem I guess... just speculating and missing it is all.
 
Occasionally you'll get a lively conversation going on a thread here and there, but the forum has been done for years.

The activity was declining every year, but after covid and the huge site update, it seemed like 90% of users were just gone.
 
Those camera talks, 200-250 pages, sometimes 300+ for some new releases, were insane.
 
In a similarly themed previous thread, someone chalked up the lack of traffic to people moving to camera specific FaceBook groups. Although the FS7 FB groups are pretty dead, granted it's and old camera, but not exactly obsolete.

We probably lost a number of people to RedUsers and the Blackmagic forum, not to mention that a lot of people have retired by now.

I check the new posts every week or so, but I find when I ask questions, I either get no replies, or people don't know the answer to my questions.

DPReview's video subforum doesn't get near as much traffic as it used to, although a lot of people might have left when Amazon tried to kill the site.

There are thorough camera reviews, camera test, rig breakdowns, and tutorials on YouTube, which might have usurped some of the needs filled by DVXUser.

When the site was revamped, there was a tone of spam threads, and a number of long-time members were locked out or had to get their posts approved by an admin before they went live, and I think some of them just gave up.
 
https://www.reddit.com/r/cinematography/ is pretty good.

I think also product manufacturing is maybe pretty mature. I was involved in so much early day LED bashing, we all argued over any new camera release, but the sentiment now is like it'd be great if it had this, not exactly a M43 vs S35 battle.

I use YT for obscure problems like setting up DJI stuff or working through issues. I think YT sort of sucks these days though, I have no time for the review channels as a hobby at all, even though I have watched many hours. At this point they're multi-brand salespeople also trying to grind their way to more subs (to sell more). IDKWTF you'd start a review channel. I think there'll be a resurgence in filmmaking too, not speaking to AI vs. film industry, but as people watch enough videos about the gear, at some point it is toxic continuing to watch.

@Imamacuser I'll try harder to answer your questions.
 
Thw internet seems to be entertainment for children.

When i have a “problem” lik some obscure tedium like sdi settings on the c200 i cant find answers here or on facboon or youpube.
 
As far as BMCuser and RU, they didn't take anything away from DVXuser. I was heavily active on BMCuser (like here) all throughout its life and many people that were there also were here posting back and forth. And although RU also had its shared people, most of them there were only interested in RED cameras.

Some of the biggest years and most craziest years for DVXuser (at least when I was here that I remember) were from 2012-2019 (golden years of a lot of change and new toys/advancements), which had all three sites going at once. (They shut down BMCuser at some point after covid.)
 
Actually just saw again it said Blackmagic forum above, not BMCuser, and that one also definitely didn't have an impact. Was there for a bit too in the very early days and it felt very worldwide, lots of people from everywhere (and many very inexperienced) mostly interested in everything-Blackmagic.
 
Im a great lover of this kind of forum, and visit about 6 each day. If i can help people in any way, I usually try. I never claim to be an expert but am now old and winding down, but if i can stop people wasting time, money and energy do8ng the wrong things, or the right things the wrong way, I try. Facebook groups are transient and trivial compared to these kinds of forums. One that popped up on face book that I contributed to, Ive just deleted. They are shallow. No sense of family and worse, full of inaccurate and sometimes dangerous info. One post wonders. No quality, and a need for instant satisfaction. Worst of all, they're often juvenile and trivial. No proper conversations and of course, when you go back you can never find things and the way people reply to individuals and their responses, the time line gets wrecked. One of my favourite audio forums just died. A great shame. Here, certain members give consistently brilliant advice. Others talk bo**ocks. We know weightings. Social media lacks this feature.
 
I've never had a facebook account. I wish it were possible to check in on a few things, family connections etc. without opening an account, no real interest in posting. I seem to be down to about once a month on DVXUser because every time I login it's time to reverify for 30 days, but I do read more often than that.
 
I've moved on to forums like IndieTalk, but I don't even frequent that as much anymore. I don't care about tech, I care about the art and craft and want to associate and dialogue with like-minded people. I've tried reddit, but it's too liberal, even in non-political subs. At this point, I've given up trying to find a place to dialogue.
I miss the old DVXuser days when there was like ten of us working on features at any given time. We'd journal our experiences, cheer each other on, learn... That's what I miss.
 
You can still find those interactions, conversations on Vimeo and in YouTube comments (like for serious short films), but I know it's not the same...but either is anything else.

Besides that, everything is a numbers game and an algo [rithm] race...absolutely nothing else matters in socials (aka the new internet).
 
I get things change over time and the industry both in hobby and profession has changed many times over since I first got into the game and began hovering around on this site but, I sure do miss the good ol' days.
Click to expand...

I only joined last year but this is the first time I've joined any video-specific forums. I started dabbling in amateur video in the early 2000s but didn't pursue that much due to the high cost of video equipment. I pursued my interest in computers instead, and could often be found lurking on computer related forums. That said, I have always found a lot of photography and video enthusiasts on computer and electronics forums.

The amateur video landscape has certainly changed a lot. Back in those days you'd be lucky if anyone at all saw your video. Perhaps you'd show it to friends/family or in a classroom. Giving people copies meant dubbing VHS tapes or burning [expensive!] DVD-Rs. Nowadays, I can put something on YouTube and have tens, if not hundreds of people watch it, possibly even from other parts of the world.

The funny thing here is, I actually joined a few forums on Reddit for 'Youtubers', where people literally get obsessed with how many views/subscribers they have, and the worst ones are people saying "I uploaded some AI slop two hours ago why does it only have three views and not made me a famous influencer moan moan whinge whinge???!!11!!??".

I suppose the name of this forum "DVXuser" might seem a bit redundant nowadays. My Panasonic camera is a HC-X :D.
 
DVX is for the history of the site and all of our personal nostalgia; no other camera name would work and even rebranding it to something more generic like CameraUser (like Cinema5D did with CineD) wouldn't matter because of the general nature of forums.

It mostly exists as a special little camera and A/V production/post Smithsonian.
 
I think this forum, or any forum, is what you make of it. If you (we) want more dialogue around XYZ topic, then post about that topic. Start the conversation, ask questions, provide feedback or insight for others, etc.

Be the change you want to see.
 
There's just no one here to do that with, lol.

But that's what I def do on reddit with my other interests or watch videos on YT to learn stuff quickly.

One reason it's just not the same anymore on a forum like this is because we aren't as clueless with everything as we were 20 years ago. It was so fun figuring stuff out and living through minor improvements in archaic technology, and watching people's videos when the bar was very low, things like that.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top